Consumer Association wants input from GAA to stop touts fleecing fans

The Consumer Association of Ireland (CAI) wants to hold showdown talks with the GAA and Irish ticketing organisations in an attempt to eliminate ticket touting from big sporting events.

Dermott Jewell of the CAI said that action needs to be taken, with tickets for Dublin's All-Ireland semi-final replay against Mayo being offered at three times the face value on the black market.

He told the Herald that he will be contacting representatives from sporting and ticketing organisations in the coming weeks.

"I want to sit down with the GAA and other bodies that are involved in ticket sales and see if we can all work together to come up with some new ideas, because it's a problem that keeps cropping up," said Mr Jewell.

"We need to pull together a meeting soon."

Concerts

A spokesman for Ticketmaster told the Herald that they would be happy to speak with Mr Jewell.

"We are always available to sit down and talk with consumer bodies," he said.

Official GAA online ticket seller Tickets.ie did not wish to comment on the matter, while the GAA was unavailable to comment at the time of going to print.

Mr Jewell said that Irish supporters are getting "fleeced" going to concerts and sporting events outside of the country.

"Irish fans go abroad to other EU member states and get fleeced too," he said.

"The thing to do is to come to the table with an open mind, nothing on the page and see where we go."